Remember kiddies, tighten those lugnuts!

[dmention7]

So this morning I had a shop swap out my rear winter wheels for my summers. I got the fronts just fine, but the rears were stuck to the hubs like mofos. Anyways, I picked up the car at lunch, and got about 100' down the road before I felt/heard a terrible clunk followed by grinding and the sight of my rear driver's side wheel bouncing down the road, and across a parking lot.

Turns out the tech had put on the wheels without realizing the tires were directional. He swapped them, torqued down one side, went to answer the phone and completely forgot about the other. (hand)

Well, after putting the wheel back on and checking the car out, the manager swore up and down there was no damage to the car. (luckily enough the wheel landed hub side down, and was undamaged) I could barely believe it, but when I checked it out myself, it looked like the car landed on the suspension's trailing arm, and just scratched the hell out of the white plastic shroud around the suspension link. The little shield around the rotor was bent, but I could see no evidence the rotor made any significant contact with the ground.

It's almost like that plastic part was there for the express purpose of saving the car from inattentive mechanics (boom07)

Crappy cell phone pics:





I guess I'm just lucky the lugs fell off at 20mph right next to the shop instead of at 75mph on the freeway!

 

[Spiced MSP]

WHOA!! You are lucky as hell. I could have had that happen to me before. I am very strict about what gets done to my car at shops. Every time the mechanics are done, no matter what it is, I check after them. and the car never leaves my sight. If I can't see the car from a waiting room, I'm standing outside the garage watching or looking through a window the entire time. It's a habit. I got tires replaced one time before and checked the lugs on all four tires and my drivers side front had all four lugs loose..NOT EVEN HAND TIGHT!!! and the mechanic backed my car out of the garage like that. I can only imagine what would have happened if I drove off like that. You are lucky though.

 

[msp03.5]

HOLY S%$T!! I would be pissed. Glad it wasn't worse though.

 

[11B-33T]

F$%#-NO! (pissed)..All that limp dick manager did was swear there's no damage?! WTF!! They shoul be kissing your ass with free service for a year if you you would even use them again.

Glad your okay and you got an angel watching over you. Shudder to think of it coming off at highway speeds.

Side note, I bought a needle torque wrench @Checkers yesterday and just came in from torquing all my lugs to 80. A few were pretty loose and I only changed my studs & wheel setup this past Saturday..(uhm)

 

[Bassmachine]

I would have hit someone in the face... but i have anger issues. Id have told them to give me a refund though thats bulls*** negligence.

 

[Droopy]

I would have hit someone in the face... but i have anger issues. Id have told them to give me a refund though thats bulls*** negligence.

I don't know about the punch in the face, but definitely a refund!

 

[BadBandar]

Holy crap. I would have blew up if a shop did that to my car.

 

[dmention7]

Haha, believe me, I was pissed as all hell when I saw the wheel go bouncing by. I think I unconsciously knew what happened before I actually figured it out.

But I'm not really one to get too worked up about things, so once I realized there was no real damage, I was almost more amused than mad. I actually felt bad for the guy... they're nice folks there, and the tech seemed horrified that he ****** up.

I plan to get the car checked out--maybe I'll have my insurance send an adjuster. But for now it seems like it's going to get chalked up to one of those things that scares the hell out of you, but works itself out in the end.


EDIT: Oh yeah, I meant to ask if anyone knows for sure if that plastic shroud serves any purpose besides protecting the trailing arm link from exactly this situation?

 

[SeR_Cyclops]

Did they make you pay for the switching the tires? I think the should do that one on the house.

 

[jazzman]

Side note, I bought a needle torque wrench @Checkers yesterday and just came in from torquing all my lugs to 80. A few were pretty loose and I only changed my studs & wheel setup this past Saturday..(uhm)

It seems to me that you are supposed to recheck the torque on lugs after the first 25 miles or something.

 

[dmention7]

Did they make you pay for the switching the tires? I think the should do that one on the house.

No, they gave me a refund. Though the bill was only $15 so that's kind of a minor victory.

And yeah, you're supposed to recheck the lugnuts (on alloy wheels anyways) after 50 miles or so. I do it as a matter of course when I get home from a shop, because they always overtighten. I guess now I'll start bringing ol torquey and checking them in the parking lot!

 

[11B-33T]

It seems to me that you are supposed to recheck the torque on lugs after the first 25 miles or something.

I only put over 25 miles on the car just yesterday that's why I retorqued them. checked them again after driving about 10 miles round trip to work and snugged them to 85lbs..

 

[daltonjohnson]

definately buying a torque wrench. and while we are on the subject, do yall's lug nuts get seized? every time i take a wheel off i break a stud and its hard to find a similar nut to stock.

 

[dmention7]

I've never broken a stud on properly torqued lugnuts. However, on my gf's car, I've broken all 4 studs on one of the wheels over the course of several tire rotations. My best guess is that at one point, some discount tire gomer torqued the **** out of all the lugs and stretched the studs. Since then, they've all eventually given up and broken off. However if you know you're torquing them properly, try using some anti-sieze on the lug stud threads.